Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Cloud Cuckoo Land

FOR CAPTAIN FOGG who wants to SAIL AWAY

In 414 B.C.E., cranky Athenian comic playwright - Aristophanes - wrote a play called THE BIRDS. Written at the height of the long, bloody & costly Peloponnesian War against Sparta, THE BIRDS is Aristophanes' SCATHING satirical attack on Athens & Athenians.

THE BIRDS tells the tale of two Athenian men - Pithetaerus & Euelpides - who are so thoroughly sick & tired of life in Athens, & the people of Athens, that they go to the agora (marketplace), buy two birds - one each - & then somehow get the birds to fly them up into the clouds. Once there - amongst the clouds & the birds - these two disgruntled Athenian citizens - P & E - establish a utopian society - CLOUD CUCKOO LAND.

Can't think why (SQUID says oh so sarcastically) but tripping to Cloud Cuckoo Land has lately been on my mind.

3 comments:

  1. Vede Mecum!

    High in the sky is the bird on the wing
    Please carry me with you
    Far far away from the mad rushing crowd
    Please carry me with you

    Again I would wander where memories enfold me
    There on the beautiful Island of Dreams

    Far far away on the Island of Dreams

    -Tom Springfield-

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha! Another kindred spirit! Now that we have a theme song . . .

    I'll acquire the birds if you'll gather to clouds.

    Octopus - do you want to fly away as well?

    ReplyDelete
  3. We would shout and swim about
    The coral that lies beneath the waves
    (Lies beneath the ocean waves)
    Oh what joy for every girl and boy
    Knowing they're happy and they're safe
    (Happy and they're safe)

    We would be so happy you and me
    No one there to tell us what to do
    I'd like to be under the sea
    In an octopus' garden with you.

    ReplyDelete

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